On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 17:52:59 -0500, fitchett@chem.utah.edu ("Brian
Fitchett") wrote:
>I thought the MTBE was being phased out in California in favor of some other
>oxygenator. Or at least thats what i thought i heard when i used to live in
>California. Its wreaks havoc on many things, it dissolves rubber pretty
>easily not to mention the polluted water. If you live in an area where
>there is a serious problem with MTBE you can easily smell it in the tap
>water even at low ppm concentrations. Who wants to drink water that smells
>like MTBE??? not me....
"Supposed to be phased out." Yep, it's supposed to be alright. But
they haven't phased any of it out since the talk of doing so first
came up several years ago.
You know, it'd "cost too much" or some such BS. At least where I'm at
(Bay Area), all of the gas pretty much comes from the same refineries
-- either Shell or Chevron. The only thing that makes it different is
which oxygenate they add. The Union 76 gas (non-MTBE, ethanol
oxygenated gas) that is sold around here is processed at the same
refineries. They just add ethanol instead of MTBE. Of course, in
most cases 76 tries to mark it up a good 10-15 cents above the
competition for that very reason, but they do bring the prices down to
reasonable levels when there is a competing station nearby with much
cheaper prices.
-Bill
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